A coalition of environmental justice and civil rights activists has filed a complaint alleging that cap-and-trade provisions in California’s pioneering program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions discriminate against people of color.

Speaking of insanity, DNC-head Debbie Wasserman Schultz sent a survey to us Democrats. The odor of desperation so potent it managed to waft through the computer screen. Here is a sample of the questions asked: I suspect that the DNC will be none too happy with my response.

Earlier in the year I reported about the 80 spot bills — empty bills awaiting bill language — which were moved from the legislative budget committees to the Assembly and Senate floors.

The now includes Proposition 25, majority vote by the Legislature to pass a budget; and Proposition 26, requiring a supermajority vote to pass fees and taxes by the Legislature. So the majority Democrats are making major policy changes and potential tax increases by dropping either in trailer-bill language.

By using the spot bills, and now budget-trailer bills, the majority party is avoiding the usual and legal committee process, and the public will never hear the policy and financial debate surrounding the bills.

This means legislators are not always given have a chance to weigh in on and debate the bills.

The tactic raises serious questions about the questionable lengths the majority party will go to jam through legislation without the historically and legal processes.

Dear Readers: As an environmental health and safety professional, I am often comforting clients confused by compliance issues — who are trying to do the right thing, but the arcane language and regulatory quirks make it difficult to know what the right thing is.

The North Carolina man visited by armed EPA agents after sending an email to a controversial agency official says he’s not satisfied with the explanations about what he considers an excessive response and that he wants changes to agency policies and procedures. …. The incident unfolded after Keller sent an email April 27 to the EPA to try to reach Al Armendariz — a regional administrator who was under fire for a YouTube video post days earlier in which he said his enforcement strategy was to “crucify” executives from big oil and gas companies.

The letter to an EPA external affairs director read “Do you have Mr. Armendariz’s contact information so we can say hello? – Regards- Larry Keller.”

Keller said he was just asking as a taxpayer and denies being part of the Tea Party, though he acknowledges supporting the movement’s calls to defund the agency in part because it has outreached its intended mission.

“We are a customer of them,” he said.

Makes me wonder what the EPA officials asked of him, that he denied being a member of the Tea Party.

Meanwhile, in California, our eco-activists are just as dangerous, but in entirely different way. From Cal Wactchdog: NEW: Restoring the San Joaquin River for non-endangered red herring. It seems a fiscally responsible congressman doesn’t want to waste millions of dollars on introducing salmon into a river that isn’t ready for them. The key point of the article:

Thus far, $70 million has been spent on San Joaquin River restoration mainly on environmental studies with nothing to show for it. No physical improvements have been made to bring about restored salmon runs in the San Joaquin River. That’s $70 million that might as well have been flushed down the proverbial toilet to run to the sea.

This is one reason why California has spent $18.7 billion on five water bonds (Propositions 12, 13, 40, 50 and 84) since 2000 and has no added water to show for it. Instead, the bond monies have gone for open space acquisitions, greenscaping and environmental studies around upscale residential enclaves.

California’s deserts and mountains are rapidly being blanketed by wind farms with huge turning propellers that spin large magnetic coils to produce electricity. Rare Earth Elements are an essential ingredient needed to manufacture these magnets. REEs, such as Neodymium, Samarium, Gadolinium and Dysprosium, are in limited supply. Which brings into question both of Mr. Gore’s “renewability” and “sustainability” marketing claims.

California was the world’s largest producer of REEs until 2002, when the huge Mountain Pass open pit mine was closed after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency determined that 600,000 gallons of highly radioactive mining wastewater had been spilled onto the surrounding desert between 1984 and 1998. The water contained highly concentrated amounts of radium, which has a half-life of 1600 years, and thorium, which has a half-life of 14 billion years.

Today, 95 percent of all REEs are mined and processed in remote Western China. Once shrouded in secrecy by China’s autocratic leadership, the environmental dangers of unregulated REE mining have caused so much damage it is now an acknowledged national concern. According to Wang Caifeng, China’s Deputy director-general of the Materials Department of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, producing one ton of REEs creates 2,000 tons of mine tailings. It is also estimated that, within Baotou, where China’s primary rare earth production occurs, REE enterprises produce approximately 2.5 billion gallons of highly polluted wastewater per year and most of that waste water is “discharged without being effectively treated, which not only contaminates potable water for daily living, but also contaminates the surrounding water environment and irrigated farmlands.”

The Obama administration’s top environmental official in the oil-rich South and Southwest region has resigned after Republicans targeted him over remarks made two years ago when he used the word “crucify” to describe his approach to enforcement. In a letter to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson sent Sunday, Al Armendariz says he regrets his words and stresses that they do not reflect his work as administrator of the five-state region including Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana.

Dear Readers: Being an environmental health and safety professional, I am often called to assist companies preparing for agency inspections. It is a very stressful time, as my clients strive to come into full compliance with arcane requirements and regulatory minutia that seems to have no bearing on science or common sense. However, all of my clients work hard to create the healthiest environment and safest work place possible. So, the Goddess of Flaming Capitalism is in a rage today over the tactless, soulless, vile words of an EPA bureaucrat: Exciting new EPA enforcement method revealed: Single out a few offenders and crucify them

(Via Weasel Zippers and the Foundry) A video surfaced on Wednesday showing a regional administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency comparing his agency’s philosophy with respect to regulation of oil and gas companies to brutal tactics employed by the ancient Roman army to intimidate its foes into submission.

EPA’s “philosophy of enforcement,” said EPA’s Region VI Administrator Al Armendariz, is “kind of like how the Romans used to conquer little villages in the Mediterranean: they’d go into little Turkish towns somewhere, they’d find the first five guys they’d run into, and they’d crucify them.”

“That town was really easy to manage for the next few years,” Armendariz added.

This goes to a question of states’ rights, including whether a state has the right to maintain and keep its citizens safe and secure its borders.

We knew Justice Antonin Scalia may be on board for at least most of the law and even justices Clarence Thomas and John Roberts. With Justice Elena Kagan recusing herself, as she should, we could see a divided court at 4-4. I hope this isn’t the case.

The justices seemed worried about the effect of SB 1070 on the Fourth Amendment. They showed real due diligence when it comes to making sure the Constitution is followed in its totality and not just the parts one group or another would like to see supported. I was impressed with how Paul Clement (representing Arizona) handled the questions.

One of the most stunning and interesting aspects of the questioning revealed that the federal government does not seem to be enforcing current laws for dealing with illegal immigration. We are cautiously optimistic that Arizona’s law will remain and other states will then secure their borders.

At least the Roman senators had the decency to offer straight-up bribes for votes. Charles Caesar is following the story of a Spanish firm that is poised to be put in charge of this country’s electronic voting: Scytl… a [Spanish] company which purchased SOE and now will process U.S. election results overseas. From the Scytl About page and confirmed here…Prior to joining Scytl, Mr. Valles was Vice-President and Chief Financial Officer of GlobalNet, a NASDAQ publicly-traded telecommunications company headquartered in Chicago. A quick look at Obama donors from KPMG hits the jackpot. Four pages of Obama donors is definitive of Senior Manager Pere Valles’ team. Anyone who has worked in a consulting company can attest to the “birds of a feather” associations. While not a direct connection to Barack Obama, this is circumstantial evidence.

As the data plainly indicate, Rome knew how to create wealth. And, despite the fact that Roman soldiers had little qualms about inflicting pain, I would also argue they showed more compassion during their crucifixions than the EPA does during theirs.

Dear Readers: A friend of the Shrine decided to give a call to the office of Karen Bass, freshman congresswoman from the blue CA-33/West LA County area. He notes:

On her internet site, she has a video of the “Faces of the unemployed”. She is the cause of much of the unemployment in California stemming way back to the formaldehyde issue I faced and thousands of others in this state as well as the diesel rule under the guise of the California Air Resources Board. I called her office in Washington and told her people that I would like to be on that video and her actions as Speaker of the House in California was in the most part responsible for my demise financially. In the words of her spokesman: “The environment is much more important than jobs”.

Bass served as a California Co-chair of Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign.

As a member of the California Assembly, she Bass served as the chair of the Select Committee on Foster Care and as vice chair of the Legislative Black Caucus.

When Speaker Fabian Nunez was termed out of the California Assembly (she served in the 47th CA Assembly District and was Majority Whip), she was voted in as Speaker. Subsequently, she stated: “The Republicans were essentially threatened and terrorized against voting for revenue. Now [some] are facing recalls. They operate under a terrorist threat: ‘You vote for revenue and your career is over.’ I don’t know why we allow that kind of terrorism to exist. I guess it’s about free speech, but it’s extremely unfair.”

During her time in the California Assembly, I don’t see any record of service on teams involving budget or small business expansion. I see no evidence of any thing resembling serious interest in “job creation” beyond platitudes and YouTube videos. Let’s take a look at her current record as Congresswoman, shall we:

Her most recent sponsored bills deal with: Child Abuse program (reworking regulations so that the Federal Government has more power than the state); aTask Force for assessing Human Trafficking (as if we didn’t all realize it is a hideous problem without spending more tax dollars); And a commission to “accelerate the end of breast cancer” (I am curious how, precisely, a commission is going to speed-up the research related to the cure of any cancer; such organizations are notorious for slowing things down).

Let’s see how she did during actual votes on other congressional bills. Did she support the Keystone Pipeline which would have created several thousand American jobs and eventually lessened the cost of gas for her constituents? Did she vote for a freeze in congressional pay? Did she support California citizens in the nearby Central Valley crying for water? See for yourself.

Plainly, Bass serves Obama and promotes victim-oriented politics. If you want real solutions to the job crisis, there will be none coming from her office. I sure hope the people of her district, with the above-average 11% unemployment rate, get informed and realize what a bill of goods they are being sold.

A few news and notes that caught the attention of the Goddess of Capitalism:

Cupcake ATMs On The Way : Sprinkles, a gourmet cupcake chain with 10 locations nationally, is set to open its first 24-hour cupcake vending machine on March 9 at its original store in Beverly Hills, Calif.

Why the SDUSD assumed that they would have the money for these pay raises in the future is unknown to me. Much of the district’s funding comes from the California state government. The state’s finances are not improving. Given our high rates of taxation of all kinds, I am sure that California will lag any national recovery.

The unions are resisting any concessions, of course, and seem willing to put their heads in the sand and let the layoffs roll on. Meanwhile Scott Barnett of the SDUSD considers the nuclear option, if only to get the unions to bargain in their own best interests…

The California Parent Trigger is an historic new law that gives parents in California the right to organize and demand a real change at their child’s failing school. Under the Parent Trigger, parents at persistently low-performing schools can organize and transform their school based on what’s good for children, not adults. If they are able to gather 51% of parent signature at their school their district must implement one of four turnaround models (including in-district reforms such as staff changes and out-of-district reforms such as charter conversion).”

Mountain lion reported near schools
SAN DIEGO – Two schools and a Boys and Girls Club were locked down Monday after a mountain lion sighting was called into authorities, deputies said. The mountain lion was seen on Winecreek Road in 4S Ranch just before 1 p.m. causing Oak Valley Middle School and Stone Ranch Elementary School to keep students inside, according to the San Diego Sheriffs Department.

A 6-year-old boy was attacked by a mountain lion while walking near the lodge at Chisos Basin in Big Bend National Park with his family Sunday night. The boy suffered non-life-threatening injuries — scrapes and puncture wounds to his face, according to park officials. His father was able to fight off the cat by stabbing it with a pocket knife.

I am second to no-one (well, perhaps KT) in my love of felines. But I personally want cougar hunts re-established in California. We need these animals to relearn their fear of us. They aren’t pets: They are high-end predators.I do not want any child sacrificed on the altar of eco-activism.

In summary, science progresses by testing predictions against real world data obtained from direct observations and rigorous experiments. The stakes in the global-warming debate are much too high to ignore this observational evidence and declare the science settled. Though there are many more scientists who are extremely well qualified and have reached the same conclusions we have, we stress again that science is not a democratic exercise and our conclusions must be based on observational evidence.

The computer-model predictions of alarming global warming have seriously exaggerated the warming by CO2 and have underestimated other causes. Since CO2 is not a pollutant but a substantial benefit to agriculture, and since its warming potential has been greatly exaggerated, it is time for the world to rethink its frenzied pursuit of decarbonization at any cost.

Dear Readers: Between the Young Prince’s 10th Birthday Party, my profit-center activities, and Horemheb’s engagement in Santa Barbara, I have hit the stress level I normally feel Dec. 23rd. So, yesterday, I decided to engage in a little light reading. There were some real chestnuts to be roasted!

The Occupoopers decided their little Civic Center drama needed a larger stage. So, they took their show on the road to the West Coast Ports in an attempt to stifle capitalism. Beers with Demos has a report with pictures:

#OccupyFail – the Longshoreman continued to transport goods to consumers (especially those evil, gas-guzzling, greenhouse-gas producing, demon trucks for red-neck Tea Party types).

UPDATE 2: Livestream has been down for a while. Occupy Wall Street tweeted that their equipment has been confiscated by the police. I can only assume that is why the San Diego feed is down. Alternative SDO livestream is also not working. Weather may be a factor. OSD Twitter and FB pages aren’t being updated with much intel. Looks like Oakland and Portland Ports have been shut down (not surprisingly)…but there are indications that police plan to move into Oakland protest en-mass. Sounds like Long Beach/Los Angeles remain mostly open. No word from any of the Hawaiian ports. No word from inland blockade actions.

Two schools in northern San Diego County were on lockdown for more than an hour Monday after a mountain lion was spotted prowling in the area.

Students at an elementary school and middle school in the Rancho Bernardo area were kept inside while state Department of Fish and Game employees and sheriff’s deputies combed nearby canyons. A Sheriff”s Department helicopter aided in the search.

Unless Californians actually vote to permit some level of sensible Mountain Lion hunting, future stories are likely to end with a person being killed and eaten. This would real sour up someone’s holiday.

AB 131, the so-called “Dream Act”, would give thousands of illegal aliens state grant money to attend California colleges and would cost California taxpayers an estimated $65 million per year at a time when the state is drowning in debt. The referendum to repeal AB 131 has bi-partisan support statewide and aims to kill this nightmare legislation before it takes effect in January 2013 by putting on the ballot in November 2012. It simply is not fair to penalize U.S. citizens and legal immigrants by subsidizing students who are in the country illegally. I sure like voters — legal voters.